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Tower Records 3-D “The Brian Setzer Orchestra” Advertisement!!!

Tower Records 3-D “The Brian Setzer Orchestra” Advertisement!!!

Today, we were over at our friends Mark & Kelly Skipper’s house (of the famed Overlook Tiki Lounge at Skipperworld Headquarters). We picked up a piece they had that we absolutely fell in love with. This three-dimensional advertisement was designed and painted by an unknown artist for Tower Records. When the shop closed they sold off the fixtures and one of Marks’ friends nabbed it. Mark later came into possession of it, and now us!

This piece is large. It measures 4ft by 5.5ft. We had a space open on our wall in the living room and it filled it perfectly!!! It may be difficult to see in the photos, but all the words, the hot rod and the dude are raised off the surface of the piece, creating a 3-D effect.

The hotrod is killer and the dude in the seat is just cruising!

We love the tikis behind him. The imagery of this piece is so bold and vibrant!

Thanks Mark & Kelly for such a fantastic piece! We will cherish it for many years to come.

Rare 1956 Crescent 45 Record Player

Rare 1956 Crescent 45 Record Player

I am a record player fanatic! There were so many makes and styles that the options are almost endless. As usual, I was cruising eBay when SHAZAM, I came across this rare 1956 Crescent 45 record player.

This unit is farm fresh. It needs some cleaning up and a servicing to make it fully functional again.

I love the slanted design with the metal hairpin legs on the front. I also dig the atomic green fabric with the gold diamond accents on the front.

This unit has a speaker underneath. This is what drove the slanted design of this record player.

I will use some light grit sand paper to clean up all the gold accents and paint them with the 24K gold spray paint carried by Michael’s.

The grey material on the outside of the case is in good shape, but will need some freshening up.

I will reach out to my faithful repair guy Justin from Stellar Electronics. I know he will fix her up!

Here is the original ad showing this little gem towards the bottom.

For all of you who noticed the record in the background, it is a Les Baxter 10″  33&1/3 album. This cover is so fantastic and came out at the same time the player did.

1966 General Electric Mustang Portable Stereo Record Player

1966 General Electric Mustang Portable Stereo Record Player

We picked up this little gem while we were out antiquing. I love that it is on an original Gusdorf D2300 stand. It is such a small and compact unit, which makes it great for on the go entertaining. We wish we never sold our 1964 Motorola Cadet Portable Television. These units would have looked great together.

While speaking to the shop owner, he notified us that he rented this out for a photo shoot in Content Magazine. We took a couple of photos of the magazine with it in the background. Just a little more cool to add to this set up. The photographer was Arabela Espinoza.

Looks like a cool shoot! Nice staging.

The photographer did a great job with even with the little things. In the foreground we can see Pall Mall cigarettes, Polaroid camera, pull tab beers!

This player is really clean. The platter mat needs to be glued back down to the platter but that is an easy fix with some rubber cement.

Gotta love the 70’s green and orange accents!

I have to bring this in to my good buddy Justin at Stellar Electronics to give this little guy a tune up.

I haven’t decided if we are gonna keep this unit yet.

Below is the verbage from the advertisement for this Mustang Portable Stereo Record Player.

Turn that thing down! How many times have you heard that? Now you can do something about it. Besides suffer in silence. Pick up your party & your stereo Mustang & sink slowly into the sunset. Like far away. G.E.’s Mustang is meant to be carried room to room or house to house. The big speakers make great stereo sound sound that way. & that’s what musics for.”

-Boys Life November 1966

Alameda Point Antiques Faire Small Haul

Alameda Point Antiques Faire Small Haul

Alameda Haul

Today, we hit the Alameda Point Antiques Faire.  Mel and I were up around 2:30am to get ready and head out for the faire.  The Alameda Point Antiques Faire opens at 6:00am, and there is usually a line eagerly awaiting to get in.  We were third in line and managed to score a few items for our collection.  Here are our trophies for the day!

Holt Howard Pixieware

Mel was able to snatch up these two pieces of Holt Howard.  These little pixieware jars can get pricey!

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We have tried to kitsch up our kitchen even more than it already is.  When I saw these Holt Howard scarecrow salt and pepper shakers I knew they would look fantastic on our Big Chill cooktop.

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This kitschy ceramic cow bank will look great on top of our fridge!

Cow creamer, S&P

Here are more kitschy cows.

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This is a metal doggie bank.  He is so cute!

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We already have a set of these, but one of them was repaired.  This is a flawless set that will be a great replacement.  These are so atomic!

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Though we do not smoke cigarettes, we love the colors in this set of ashtrays made by Eagle.

Coral Fiberglass Shade

This is a great coral fiberglass barrel lamp shade.

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Mel was able to pick up these fifties wall fish as well.  Ceramicraft produced the fish on the right.  Although we’ve seen the set on the left before, we’re unsure of the maker.

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These vintage hanging seahorses were a great find.  They were produced by Nameth Enterprises.

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These of course will end up in our Tiki room.  They are vintage Bali Tiki headhunter salt and pepper shakers.

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We are always on the hunt for vintage barkcloth, so we knew we had to get this bolt of fabric.

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This is an awesome small pink ceramic bullet planter.  Something that is crazy in the bullet planter world is that sometimes the smaller ones are more valuable than the larger ones.

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Mel and I have really enjoyed staging our rooms such as the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms.  This set of vintage products will end up in our master bathroom.  We love all the little starbursts!

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I love this novelty shot glass set, it’s fantastic!  The imagery on the original box is so cool.

IMG_0398Mel scored this fantastic large vintage plastic aqua and white purse.

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These speakers look like UFO’s!  They were made by National Home Speaker (model SPT-501) and were mainly used as external speakers for small radios.

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For me, this was the find of the day.  This little record player is in fantastic original condition.  The unit still works, but needs some minor adjustments to fine tune it.

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The green felt on the platter is still soft and the fabric on the front is flawless.

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The cabinet needs a little touch up, but I am so lovin’ this little guy!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Voice of Music Record Player

Jim Reeves is ringing in Easter morning at the Hepcat house.

Voice of Music Tri-O-Matic Model 560A

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For a while now Mel and I wanted to set up an area in our living room to listen to records. I love my library of digital audio files, but there is something about listening to a record that allows you to feel the music. I love how every single record is an event….heck some records are an experience. I love the visuals of the album cover and the back story that’s written on the cover.

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We were out looking around at antique shops and came across this really nice The Voice of Music record player. I was drawn to it because of its hairpin legs and I am a sucker for blonde finishes.  

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The cabinet is in great shape for its age. I will leave it as it is for now, but might restore it later.

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It even had the original plater disc!

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Looks like you can hook up an external radio…..maybe I can play my iPhone through it too?

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I am currently looking for a matching tension pole record stand so it looks more balanced.

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It came with its original operating instructions and…..

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a record that is supposed to help you adjust the tone to maximize its audio quality.

IMG_8658This will get a lot of use. It is so nice to listen to my favorites like Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Lena Horne, James Brown and so many others.

Telefunken 5094 WK HiFi Stereo

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It even has the original makers tag!

As normal, I was searching through Craigslist and came across this Telefunken 5094 WK for $50!  I am a sucker for Telefunken, and this time it was no different.  This unit is in pretty great shape for its age but needs a little reconditioning to put her back to normal.

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I love Telefunken and with my stereo repair guy Luis keeps telling me, “if I have to buy a German console, only buy Telefunken”.  I do like the styling of Grundig units, but as Luis advised me, they are the lower end of German stereo units.

IMG_6317Here she is in all her glory.  All I have done to her at this point is oil her to darken the grain and rehydrate the wood. Those are furniture dollies under the legs of the Telefunken.  It makes it easier to move around until I find a more permanent place for it.

IMG_6318This unit has a fold out stereo and a lift up top for the record player.

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The cabinet is in remarkable shape for being 50+ years old.

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This unit has SW1, SW2, AM, FM and Phono.  It also has the cats eye, which glows green when the channel is fully in tune.

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There is a compartment on the bottom that allows you to store records.

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Telefunken record player model TW501/8TS

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Here is the original paper instruction label for the record player.

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This unit also has the dog ear speakers that pop out from the side to give a more complete sound.

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It has the original manual for the record player and the radio and they are in great shape!

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Way too cool!  Original purchase paperwork.  It looks like it was bought on December 5th 1961!  Was this possibly a Christmas present?

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Plenty of connectivity as you can see.

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There is some wear on the top of this unit that I might do a quick restoration on to make it as good as new.

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